2,000 net new words.

A good shift. Solid day at work, then came home: ate, wrote, gym, wrote.

Something like 6pm-8, 8-9:30, 9:30-11 (now)… so assuming I go to about 11:30 that’s four hours doing writing or writing related things. Clocked in 2,000 net new words across two scenes for HUNTING MIDNIGHT. Happily, the pacing of the story hit a proper midpoint right at 5K words. I think I found a good general structure for the series/season too: cold open to the pre-climax of the episode for the hook, a setup beat after the opener leaves a little cliff hanger, then flashback style for the rest of it leading back to the pre-climax point. Denouement as usual, then a strong cliff.

It’s not an uncommon way to run a thriller TV show, minus the constant cliffing at the end (they’ll usually only do that between two part episodes or at the end of the season). I’ll see how well it fits after a couple of runs, I suppose. I guess it doesn’t have to be so much of a huge cliff versus introducing a “oh man, how’s this gonna play out?” And the cold open into crazy action isn’t locked either… but I do like it as a reliable hook, plus it helps me know what I have to write towards.

Another random thought: Since it’s being designed to be written on the fly, I like having the narrator (also the main character) being only aware of the full story up to the current episode that she’s in. Versus, say, her retelling the story as if she’s an old woman now, ya know? It’s a subtle shift in the voice and some of the tensing, but I feel like it works well.